Interview: Sean Ruston, Education Officer

_Sean Ruston is next year’s Education Officer for the SU_

**How do you feel?**

Pretty euphoric, pretty happy, just fantastic for all the hard work that paid off. I’m determined to do a good job for those of you who voted.

**How did the campaign go?**

I think it went well, it’s all about getting out there, meeting the students one on one, I think I did that well, and I think it paid well, it was highly enjoyable. I’ve got the utmost respect for my opponents who did a really good job on giving me some really though competition so we were fighting tooth and nails throughout he whole thing.

**Do you think you were in for a chance by the end of the campaign?**

I always thought I was in for a chance, but I never thought anyone was the favourite as such, it was a tight race, and it was tight throughout and I’m just lucky that I won in the end.

**What was the highlight of your campaign?**

Just people saying I voted for you really, people I didn’t really know coming up to me saying hello, just getting to know loads and loads of people that I’ve never met before and really getting out there and talking. It was fantastic.

**Do you have a message for those who voted for you?**

I’m going to do my damned hardest to be the best education officer they’ve seen or could have wished for, I’m going to work really really hard on the issues that matter to you, listen to you carefully.. I’m determined to make sure that your vote is not wasted.

**Do you have any priorities?**

No, I wouldn’t say that, the education officer covers such a large range of different issues, I don’t want to say that one is more important than the other.

**How do you plan to improve feedback for exams?**

We need to work harder on standards, we need to stamp out the tendency to just write one line of feedback, we need to make sure that as a minimum there’s always a breakdown of marks. The key is looking at standards. I know it differs from department to department, so we will be working with the departmental reps on improving feedback.

**Which policy do you think will be the most achievable?**

I think maybe building on the information the union has gathered this year on hidden course costs, we need to build on the surveys they’ve been running, to work with the university, look at more online resources.